ANA and CRIDO Urge ICANN to Adopt “Do Not Sell” Registry to Address Challenges With “Defensive Registrations” in Top Level Domain Name Expansion Program

In a filing yesterday with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), ANA and the Coalition for Responsible Domain Oversight (CRIDO) urged ICANN to adopt a “Do Not Sell” registry or some similar approach to address the serious concerns Internet stakeholders have about the need for “defensive registrations” to protect their brands in the TLD expansion program. Our comments were in response to a request for comment from ICANN on the “perceived” need for defensive registrations.

The ANA/CRIDO letter describes the specific concerns marketers and other Internet stakeholders have about the need for defensive registrations at both the top and second domain levels. It also discusses serious gaps and shortfalls in the current protections that ICANN has provided for brand and trademark owners in the TLD expansion program. The letter urges ICANN to adopt a “Do Not Sell” registry, a proposal that was delivered to ICANN by ANA and CRIDO last month.

If you have any questions about our comments, please contact Dan Jaffe in ANA's Washington office at 202-296-2359 or at djaffe@ana.net.

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Blog: Regulatory Rumblings

Penned by Dan Jaffe, the ANA's group EVP of government relations, this blog focuses on advocacy initiatives and key legal/regulatory issues that threaten national advertisers' freedom of commercial speech.